Joining Karl Rove and Alberto "Fredo" Gonzales in announcing their retirements is Conny McCormack, the much embattled and always friendly to voting machine vendors Registrar of Voters for Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the nation.

In a statement on the LA County Registrar's website McCormack begins by saying:

After 30 years of public service, I have decided to retire at the end of this year. It has been an honor to serve the residents of Los Angeles County for the past 12 years as Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk and to lead a Department of exceptionally talented and dedicated employees committed to providing top quality service in all three diverse functional areas --- from election administration to recording property deeds to maintaining the public’s official records regarding voting, property ownership, birth, death, marriage, and more.

Here's a picture from a Diebold brochure that features McCormack. Could our question that accompanies the picture, which we used in a recent article on McCormack's expressed concerns for Diebold's profits, be an omen of what is to happen in the future?

UPDATE FROM BRAD: Despite McCormack's exit statement to the contrary, as linked above, she has left Los Angeles County a mess. At this time, we have no idea what voting system will be used in next February's Presidential Primary Election, as she's sided with the vendors, rather than the voters, when it came to meeting the requirements for CA SoS Debra Bowen's "Top-to-Bottom Review" of voting systems.

Furthermore, while she joined the throng of California Registrars all too happy to rush to the media, to bitch about having just six months to implement Bowen's new security requirements with just six months before the next big primary, it's telling that she's willing to leave nation's largest county altogether just a month before that primary. What does that tell you about her (and the other Registrars') feigned concern about having enough time to make sure the voters are well served in the next election?

The question is not will she go to work for a voting company, the only question seems to be which one, and how soon.

Conny McCormack has been a strong advocate of DREs, and has appeared in Diebold literature.

She is Registrar in Los Angeles, the largest single election jurisdiction in the country, larger than many states, with almost 4 million registered voters.

She has opposed Secretary Bowen's Top-to-Bottom review. She stated in her letter during the public comment period that she had asked the legislature to change the law so that the Secretary of State would not have the power to decertify election systems.

She's wanted to switch Los Angeles to all Diebold TSx's. Of course now, those are decertified except for disability access. She probably figures it is a good time to leave; it's all downhill from here for her plans for Los Angeles.

I am slow, but upon reading your opening remarks it occurred to me that nobody on the East Coast, or even the Between Coasts, is informed about what is happening in LA on this topic. I believe the general sentiment might be summed up with a roll of the eyes and an exasperated "Oh yeah, California...."

The "who cares" response is unjustified, and it doesn;t help to trumpet the "Bigger than X-number of National Economies---innovations always start in California" line. That puts people off even further. But the whole gravity of the story and the detail of what has happened is totally absent from media coverage.

I am an "East Coaster" and keep a close eye on what the Fascists KKKarl rove/Schwarzenegger are doing out in California. The Enron utilities debacle, to the governors recall election, and finally the faulty electronic voting machine difficulties and bogus election results were not all accidents or coincidences - but well planned events to subvert democracy by design. The Republican Party intends to rob the Demos of the foothold they have in the State of California - just like the rove/bush/cheney crime syndicate did in the States of Texas, Florida, and Ohio. The more electoral votes they can hijack the more the dream of - A Permanent Fascist Republican Party Majority 100 Year Rule - becomes a reality.

Stealing the State of California from the grip of the Democratic Party is a Republican Party wet dream. We allow their meddling and manipulations of the electoral process at the peril of our DEMOCRACY. A corporatist/fascist/Dominionist Christian police state is what they have in mind for America. That reality can not go uncontested.

Rumor has it that there may be a voter ballot scandle involving the Special Congressional Elections under Ms. McCormack's watch. Ballots without the names of all the candidates? One of the candidates was seen at the D.A.'s office and she said there was something very underhanded going on in this last election.